Hammel not thrilled with pace-of-play rulings

MESA, Ariz. - Major League Baseball's just-announced "pace of play" procedures met with a cautionary - at best - response in Cubs spring-training camp Friday.

In response to games dragging on for too long, MLB announced plans to speed things up, including:

• Umpires enforcing Rule 6.02(d), which requires hitters to keep one foot in the batter's box during an at-bat, subject to certain exceptions.

• Using timers to ensure the game resumes promptly at the end of inning breaks.

• No longer allowing managers to come out of the dugout to initiate a replay challenge. A manager will keep his challenge after each call that is overturned. Last year, a challenge was retained only after the first overturned call.

"I know that they're trying to speed up the game, but I feel like everybody's trying to change the game," said Cubs pitcher Jason Hammel. "It's a great game. How many times are we going to (tweak) these things and change the rules and bend them here and there?

"The foot-in-box rule, I thought they were already trying to enforce that. The pace of game for pitchers, they're going to keep cutting seconds off. We're going to be working at 180 heart rate pretty soon. Guys need to do certain things to get ready. I think that's really the most important part."

Cubs manager Joe Maddon took a wait-and-see approach.

"I respect what the commissioner is trying to do in Major League Baseball in general," Maddon said. "I know you've heard different comments from me in the past, but moving forward, I will just check it out, play good in the sandbox and try to make it work."

Maddon likes the players policing themselves.

"I like the shortstop coming in or the catcher going in and saying, 'Listen, let's get going, man. You're killing my knees. I'm on my heels. You want me to play better for you, let's speed things up a little bit.' I kind of like that."

Crowd behind the plate:

The Cubs have three major-league catchers in camp with Miguel Montero, Welington Castillo and David Ross.

Castillo could be the odd-man out after the Cubs acquired Montero and Ross this off-season. Joe Maddon played it carefully when asked about the situation.

"The team has not been set," he said. "A lot of things can happen between Feb. 20 and the start of the baseball season. I've talked to (Castillo). I really like the guy. He's very good. He's a real interesting player. He's young. There's a real high ceiling for this guy. So for right now, when we meet with Welington, we're just going to talk about the all the positive stuff and let's just do spring training and see how it all plays out.

"You bring different guys in for different reasons. Things could happen. Or you could go with three catchers. That's not an impossibility, either."

Could that work?

"You can do it," Maddon said. "It would take a lot of creativity."

Feeling for the kids:

Pitcher Edwin Jackson was a big booster of the Jackie Robinson West Little League team last summer. The team had its national title stripped after it was determined some playes did not meet residency requirements.

"They were excited and jubilant, as they should be," Jackson said. "They went out as Little League champions. To get it stripped away, that's a tough pill to swallow, especially as a kid. You want to feel like you played and played hard and you played fair just like everyone else, and you won. It's a tough situation for them to have to be in."